§ Mrs. GormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what action his Department is taking to identify the level of HIV infection in the United Kingdom and the consequential cost to the Exchequer; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe surveillance of HIV infection and AIDS is based on voluntary confidential reporting by clinicians of AIDS cases, monitoring of named HIV-1 tests through laboratory reports, a collaborative study in selected laboratories of named HIV tests, and the unlinked anonymous HIV prevalence monitoring programme. In England and Wales this surveillance effort is co-ordinated by the public health laboratory services AIDS centre which is part of the PHLS communicable disease surveillance centre. For the period April 1990 to March 1991 the PH LS AIDS centre received £415,000 to conduct AIDS surveillance and named HIV test monitoring and a further £678,000 was awarded to the PHLS by the Medical Research Council to conduct unlinked anonymous HIV prevalence monitoring.